I wrote a short story in celebration of it, since #amwriting has kept me writing on so many days when I would otherwise have wandered off to look at LOL CATS or something ;-} And the advice I've gotten from Johanna and other #amwriters has been invaluable.

WRITTEN IN STONE by Nik Barnabee

The tip of a wing flicked, then flicked again. Huge, clawed feet loosened, then gripped the stone ledge even harder, digging in, sending tiny cracks throughout the grey surface. The creature was deep in thought, oblivious to the world beneath her. She was in darkness. Below, there were street lights, car headlights, a brightly lit sign declaring, "Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!" farther down the street. The view was all too familiar.

Once, the arched recess in which she perched had been part of a great cathedral, built hundreds of years ago and thousands of miles away, across a vast ocean. Intricate spirals and towers and crosses had formed a magnificent silhouette as the sun set behind it at the end of each day. And when the last pastel streak across the sky finally disappeared, the creature would awaken, in a much different world. One in which humans feared the darkness beyond their torches and candles and campfires, where the creature could fly freely and return to her resting place and sleep soundly, knowing the next day, year, century would be exactly the same.

Until it wasn't.

Until she awoke to find the grand cathedral gone, with only portions of the stone facade decorating an even taller, strangely designed building. And lights, everywhere, noise more constant and disturbing than she'd ever heard, humans chattering inside the building, down in the streets ... everywhere.

But in that fearsome face, behind those piercing eyes, there was exceptional intelligence, survival instinct, an ability to adapt. And so she listened. And she learned.

And now her clawed fingers tap-tap-tapped on the keyboard of the laptop she'd "borrowed" from an unsuspecting human ...